In a previous post I discussed a Mansfield Foundation-organized workshop I participated in at which U.S. and Japanese transportation managers and experts explored ways to bring to market integrated vehicle technologies to reduce the transportation sector’s climate impact.
My earlier post noted the appropriateness of holding such a dialog in Seattle, a city where environmental consciousness is high and traffic congestion is among the worst in the United States. While the major regional population centers of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett were connected one hundred years ago by an interurban rail system, commuter rail only started to rejoin the region’s transportation network in 2000. Because it will take decades for commuter and light rail to ramp up significantly—complicated by high infrastructure costs and railway rights-of-way issues, among others—reducing the local transportation carbon footprint requires a significant focus on vehicles. At a time when the ability to invest in new roads has financial and geographic constraints, this is where integrated approach technologies come in.
One challenge mentioned earlier is how to convince transportation system users and policy leaders of the benefits of investments in new technologies to reduce the climate impact of the transportation sector. Looking at these technologies and related initiatives as economic and growth policies is one important aspect.
U.S. participants pointed out that local government and private sector stakeholders have successfully developed solutions to transportation needs when these become an economic issue. Japanese participants discussed several recent initiatives in Japan that, while targeted at reducing the carbon footprint from vehicle emissions, were also economic policies in nature. These ranged from an “eco-car” tax incentive policy (similar to “cash for clunkers” in the United States), aimed at incentivizing the manufacture and use of more fuel-efficient vehicles, to an air policy reduction law that accelerated the replacement of older, more polluting freight trucks and other vehicles off the roads in Japan’s three largest metropolitan areas. At the local level, several smaller Japanese municipalities have launched “compact cities” initiatives to reduce carbon footprints, while at the same time reviving hollowing-out urban cores.
Among other challenges identified to bringing integrated technology approaches to market, a significant one is bringing together and coordinating the broad range of stakeholders involved into unified systems. Different organizations with diverse priorities, systems, and cultures do not always mesh well—a common obstacle encountered in both the United States and Japan. Moreover, operators of integrated systems such as those developed for smart communities encounter not only differing standards and kinds of data collected, but also reluctance by some organizations to share data. Realizing the full capabilities of these systems, and their optimal use in reducing congestion and emissions, will require bridging these gaps.
Somewhat related is the importance of open, common standards to facilitate integrated technology approaches, and of coordination on standards at an international level, particularly as global supply chains and flows of cross-border services continue to expand. U.S.-Japan cooperation in driving global standards was identified by participants as important given that they are more aligned in how they develop these standards than with other countries. Governments have an opportunity to be supportive by enforcing and funding standards development, rather than trying to develop their own standards.
From the workshop I gained a new appreciation for the considerable efforts being made to implement integrated technology solutions to reducing vehicles’ carbon footprint. But at a broader level, the three issues noted above involve the surrounding policy framework and environment for these technologies, not just the technologies themselves—leaving the door open for lessons learned from these approaches to be applicable across many other sectors.
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